Arch. Pl. -ia. [med. (Anglo-)L., found first in Gervase of Canterbury, c. 1185; then, from him, in Battely’s ed. of Somner, Antiquities of Canterbury, 1703. In these, referring only to Canterbury Cathedral; in current English use, and in reference to cathedrals generally, only since 1800. Mentioned by Viollet-le-Duc, Dict. d’Architecture, 1868, as introduced into architectural nomenclature by the English archæologists. Etymology unknown: see Note below.] A gallery or arcade in the wall over the arches at the sides of the nave and choir, and sometimes of the transepts, in some large churches. Originally applied to that in Canterbury Cathedral; in the nineteenth century extended as a general term.
[c. 1185. Gervase (of Canterbury), Tract. de Combust. et Repar. Cant. Eccl., Wks. (Rolls), I. 13. Hic murus chorum circuiens in circinatione illa pilariorum in capite ecclesiæ in unum conveniebat. Supra quem murum via erat quæ triforium appellatur, et fenestræ superiores.]
1703. N. Battely, Somner’s Antiq. Canterb., II. I. iv. 16. The former Quire had but one Triforium, now there are two round the Quire, and one in each side Isle of the Quire. Ibid. A multitude of Marble Pillars … placed about the double Triforium, one above the other.
1726. J. Dart, Hist. Canterb. Cath., 8.
1774. Gostling, Walk Canterbury, 150. Above these large windows is a walk which Mr. Battely calls a triforium.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 155. Another … distinction of these arches, in large buildings, is the absence of the triforium or gallery.
1833. Dallaway, Disc. Archit. Eng., etc., 95. Above them [pointed arches] are the triforia, continued through every part.
1848. Builder, 8 July, 328/2. A discourse was … delivered by Prof. Willis, on the triforium of ancient churches…. The only ancient work in which such a term could be found … was a history of Canterbury (by Gervase), in which it occurred in three places…. He [Willis] verily believed that the modern term was a clumsy latinization of ‘thoroughfarium.’
1868. A. K. H. Boyd, Less. Mid. Age, 368. The nave [at Norwich], of fourteen bays, vaulted in stone, and with the heavy round arches of the triforium as large as those below, makes the choir, of four bays, ending in a pentagon, seem small in comparison.
1874. Parker, Goth. Archit., Gloss. 329. Triforium, or Blind-story, the middle story of a large church, over the pier-arches and under the clere-story windows.
attrib. 1835. R. Willis, Archit. Mid. Ages, vii. 87. ff is the clerestory string, and gg the triforium string. Ibid., ix. 137, note. The clerestory wall is recessed back over the triforium gallery.
1835. Whewell, German Churches (1842), 103. These intermediate vaulting shafts spring from the triforium tablet. [Note.] The running tablet or cornice below the triforium.
1905. Bond, Goth. Archit., 519. The term triforium … is often used, not of the arcade, but of the space at the back of the arcade. So that it means sometimes the triforium arcade, sometimes the triforium chamber.
[Note. On the face of it, triforium looks like a normal L. formation (cf. tricennium, triennium, trifinium, trifurcium) from tri- three or thrice + fores ‘a door of two leaves’ = ‘something consisting of or containing three doors.’ Hence it has been explained as referring to a gallery or arcade with triple openings, as found at Amiens and in some other cathedrals; but this is not the case in Canterbury cathedral, to which alone the term was applied down to 1800, so that the explanation is not consistent with the facts. Others have suggested formation from L. forāre to bore, pierce, with tri- for F. tres, L. trans. Various other conjectures have been offered (see e.g., N. & Q., series 2, vol. IV. 269, 320, 371, 481, 522; V. 57, etc.); but none of them are satisfactory. The word itself may have been erroneously formed or misapplied by Gervase: see also med.L. triforium in the sense ‘border, ornamental bordering’ in Du Cange.]
